Free The Rake Enraptured by Amelia Hart Page B

thought of his fingers on her body, and shivered. “And you are too flippant. About everything. Do you hold nothing sacred?”
    “ Very little. Oh, once I was a romantic boy. I believed in the sacred and the divine, and valued innocence with a sweet and passionate fervor. But when it’s gone you have to find something new to believe in.”
    “ Do you?” How had he had lost the innocence he had once thought precious?
    “ I’m afraid so. We can’t live without belief in something.”
    “ So what is it you believe now?”
    “ That life is for living. Not for rules, not for blind convention or hypocrisy, but for play, for sensation-”
    “ For hedonism and sin.” She said the words without heat, almost curious to hear his response.
    “ You like that word, don’t you? Sin. You still have the security of your own innocence-”
    “ Security? You mean ignorance, when you say it like that, but it is its own armor-”
    “ I know, and I-”
    “ And yet you would take it from me, if you could.” She saw his brows draw together in the beginning of a frown. “That is what this is all about, is it not? This pursuit of yours? You would like me to lose my certainties, so you can point your finger and say ‘see, now you are the same as I.’” She did not believe it, but she wanted to see him squirm.
    “ I am not so petty. You misunderstand completely.”
    “ Then why do it? Why persecute me as you do? Would you have me believe you wish to regain your lost innocence? To assume it through what? Proximity? You tell me the way you live is the natural outcome of your brokenness-”
    “ I never said I was broken,” he said sharply.
    “ You didn’t have to.”
    “ You talk philosophy, but my intent is far simpler.” He turned towards her, and suddenly he was intent, looking at her with narrowed eyes under his dark brows. “I want to enjoy your body. I want you to enjoy it, to use it as it was made to be used-”
    “ Is this your usual approach?” she broke in dubiously.
    “ I-” he blinked in confusion. “Pardon?”
    “ Is this how you usually go about seducing a woman? I have to say, I don’t think it is very effective.”
    “ No, of course it’s not how I usually . . . do that.” He was wary.
    “ Seduce. Go on, say the word. Don’t be missish. If you would do the action, you should be prepared to speak of it also.”
    “ You are utterly unexpected.” He shook his head in wonder.
    “ Undoubtedly. So it is not your usual method. That explains why you are fouling it up so thoroughly. Why the change in tactics? Are you uncertain you want the prize I represent?” Her tone of faint derision showed how little she thought herself a prize, and she could see she confounded him with this direct attack.
    “ Of course I do. What is there not to want?” He answered as if his point was already made, gesturing towards her.
    She frowned. “ What do you mean? There is nothing about me to appeal to a seasoned seducer. Not looks, nor figure, nor fortune. You are persistent beyond good sense, so much that I am amazed. What have I to offer you beyond a maidenhead that - even if you could secure it - is surely not unusual enough to justify the effort. Why will you not go trouble some other spinster?”
    Incredulity was on his face. “ How do I answer this? Such a question. But Miss Preston - Julia - surely you see yourself better than that?”
    “ Of course I can, with perfect clarity.”
    “ Then you must know there is about you a quality like a diamond, hard and fine and clear. When you turn those deep eyes on me I am moved in a way I can’t explain. I could say your skin is smooth as milk or your hair shines in the sunlight with the gleam of polished wood but that hardly captures what I mean. It is more than common prettiness.”
    She said nothing but she listened, guarded and wary against flattery. Yet there was truth in his eyes, not the warm smirk of practiced charm, but consternation and the desire to convey